Louisiana

FIRST ®LEGO®League

The 13th annual Louisiana FIRST LEGO League (FLL) middle-school robotics program is in high gear, and we could use your help at the 11 Qualifying Tournaments around the state in November (dates and locations listed on our Tournaments page) and at the LA FLL Regional Championship scheduled for Saturday, December 5th, 2015, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, at Holy Cross High School in New Orleans. The theme this year is TRASH
TREKSM Challenge, in which more than 233,000 children ages 9 to 16 (14 in US) from over 80
countries will explore the fascinating world of trash. From collection,
to sorting, to smart production and reuse, there is more to your trash
than meets the eye. The tournaments involve an exciting head-to-head robotics competition and very creative research presentations. Volunteers positions are described below. This is a great way to meet and have a positive impact on our future engineers and scientists as they explore the FLL Challenge!

All volunteers must register on the FIRST Volunteer Information and Matching System (VIMS), which takes 10-15 minutes. This allows you to provide contact information and specify your volunteer preferences. It allows us to more easily manage our volunteers. And it allows FIRST to implement their Youth Protection Program, taking steps to assure that our hundreds of thousands of students that participate are doing so in a safe environment. Every volunteer must agree to a national screening once every three years. And just a note....we get questions regarding whether you have to provide your SSN, and the answer is NO. You have the option of checking a box indicating that you do not wish to provide it. And there is an excellent VIMS User Guide providing very clear directions in a power point format with lots of screenshots, so you know excatly how to proceed. But don't hesitate to contact us with questions!!! Our information is at the bottom of this page.

VOLUNTEER POSITIONS - click on links below

Half-day and full-day slots are available, and T-shirts (Regional Championship only) and lunch are provided. If you are interested in judging or refereeing, it is a full day commitment with prior training. All other positions are OJT (on the job training). We have grown from an initial 15 team tournament in 2003 to almost 150 Louisiana teams expected to participate this year in 12 qualifiers around the state, with 60 teams coming to the Championship. It should be quite a season!

Knowledgeable and objective individuals who have the ability to assess teams fairly and determine which teams earned special awards. Technical judges assess robot design and should have a technical, engineering, or science related background. Project presentation and teamwork judges are individuals who reflect a cross section of the population and, ideally, have an understanding of education, middle-school aged youth, and/or teamwork.

There are three Judging Areas:

Robot Design Judge: interviews teams about the technical hurdles the team faced in their overall robot design, including the attachments and software programs developed for the robot.

Core Values Judge: assesses teams’ ability to be enthusiastic, show partnership, respect for their teammates, support and encouragement for other teams – determined by observation of a team activity (unknown to the team in advance) and interviews. The FLL Core Values are the basis of judgment.

Project Judge: Teams will present their project to a panel of judges. The project will have 3 components: a) Identify issues, b) Create an innovative solution, c) Share the research and solution.

Experience And Skills Needed: strong communication & diplomacy skills, ability to collaborate with others, work as a member of a team, good attention to detail, ability to provide critical evaluations in a positive manner, strong assessment skills - a judging rubric is provided, ability to sit for long periods of time. Judges must be at least 21 yrs. old.

Training: Judge Advisor conducts training prior to the event and provides guidance during the competition. The 2013 judge training will take place at UNO on Wednesday, Dec. 4th, from 7-9pm.

Time Commitment: 8am-4pm for day of event (judging of teams is completed by early afternoon, followed by deliberations to determine awards) plus one evening for training.

Official manager of the scoring sheets and official score spreadsheet.

Experience And Skills Needed: Attention to detail is critical, ability to sit for long periods of time, must be able to use Excel to enter data.
Training: Training day-of required and scoring software (spreadsheet) training is available

Ensure that timing of judging rounds is maintained and assist in the breaking down and/or cleaning up of competition rooms after all presentations are complete. Time Keepers play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of the judging rounds and maintaining pace of the day.

Experience And Skills Needed: Attention to detail is critical, ability to sit for long periods of time. Will be provided with a stopwatch.

Training: No training required

JUDGING ROOM QUEUER (4 needed):

Assure teams are queuing up on time in judging area. Support teams by finding them and bringing them to judging sessions, if necessary.

Referees score the robot performance rounds. They oversee matches, keep time, and ensure teams follow the field rules, identify rule violations, and score their performance. They fill out the official scorecard of the matches and participate in deliberations regarding contested calls. Work under the direction of the Head Referee. Play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play, and maintaining the pace of the event. Additionally, referees (with MC) keep the game area free of spectators and assist in the breakdown of competition tables.

Experience And Skills Needed: FLL experience useful, ability be assertive, thorough knowledge of the competition game and rules of play, outgoing personality; high energy, strong communication, diplomacy skills, ability to collaborate with others, work as a member of a team, very good attention to detail, ability to see all parts of competition table, ability to stand for long periods of time, strong assessment skills
Training: Mandatory training session prior to competition - typically the Saturday before. Head Referee provides guidance during the competition.

TEAM CHECK-IN/REGISTRATION(4 needed) 7am-9am

Manage all activities at the Team Check-In Table. Provide direction, assistance and information to teams and coaches. Welcome teams to the tournament and help collect and hand out registration materials.

Experience And Skills Needed: General knowledge of facility and event layout, ability to be assertive, strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to collaborate with others, work as a member of a team, strong organizational skills, attention to detail.

Experience and Skills Needed: Ability to be assertive, general knowledge of facility and event layout, strong interpersonal and communication skills, ability to collaborate with others, work as a member of a team, strong organizational skills & good attention to details, self-directed individual.

Provide information about layout of tournament – particularly to general public attending the event. Be available to answer questions throughout the day.

Experience & Skills Needed: Ability to be assertive, general knowledge of facility and event layout, ability to work as a member of a team, strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to sit for long periods.

Training: None required.

Competition Queuer Manager (1)

Responsible for managing team traffic to and from the competition floor. Stage and position teams in preparation for the start of matches. Play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining the pace of the event.

Experience & Skills Needed: FLL tournament experience useful, ability to be assertive, basic knowledge of the game and match process, ability to collaborate with others, work as a member of a team, ability to stand for long periods of time.

Reset playing field after each team match. Play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining pace of the event. Duties need to be done efficiently.

Experience & Skills Needed: FLL experience helpful, ability to reach across to center of 4 foot wide competition table, physically active role; ability to stand for long periods of time and quickly move about the field.
Training: Head referee conducts training in morning, and provides guidance during the competition

Field Queuers (2)

Ensure teams arrive for robot game matches on time and informs teams of any changes to the schedule that happen on competition day. Assist in the breaking down game tables after match play.

Experience & Skills Needed: Attention to detail is critical, ability to be assertive, ability to sit or stand for long periods of time and punctuality a must.

Training: Training provided morning of event

Floater (2)

Floaters will not be assigned to a particular area, but will step in as needed (i.e. if a volunteer role is vacant on the day of the tournament; to give a volunteer a break from their duties) and will ensure that volunteer area is restricted to volunteers only.

Game Announcers (4)

Provides the play-by-play commentary to complement the projected video images, and (with referees) keep the game area free of spectators.

Experience And Skills Needed: Well-spoken, energetic, enthusiastic with an outgoing personality and high energy - clear and strong vocal ability; requires frequent speaking over a long period of time. Comfortable using a microphone and addressing large crowd; vocally energetic and the ability to stand for long periods of time. It is preferable that they have prior knowledge about FIRST LEGO League, however, they will be trained thoroughly on that and on the FLL Challenge and its rules.
Training : Will provide training via a game overview prior to the event.

LEGO Playing Table Monitors (3)

Provide guidance and supervision for the lego building table, provided to keep younger children entertained and occupied. Encourage creativity and keep little ones from eating the legos!

Introduce each team, announces scores, banters during natural breaks that occur between rounds and between the competition and awards ceremony.

Experience & Skills Needed: Well-spoken, energetic, enthusiastic with an outgoing personality and high energy - clear and strong vocal ability; requires frequent speaking over a long period of time. Comfortable using a microphone and addressing large crowd; vocally energetic and the ability to stand for long periods of time. It is preferable that they have prior knowledge about FIRST LEGO League, however, they will be trained thoroughly on that and on the FLL Challenge and its rules. Someone with a public speaking, performing, or broadcasting background and/or FLL Robot Competition experience preferred.
Training : Will provide training via a game overview prior to the event.

Photographer(2)

Visually record all areas of the tournament. Must be able to bring your own camera. Provide digital to tournament organizers for use on website and in publications.

Pit Manager (2)

Pit Managers are responsible for communicating with and assisting all teams and volunteers in the pit area and for communicating with lead volunteers from other areas of the tournament as necessary. Play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining pace of the event. Duties need to be done efficiently.

Experience & Skills Needed: FLL tournament experience useful, general knowledge of facility and event layout, strong interpersonal/communication skills, strong organizational skills, ability to stand for long periods of time, ability to work as a member of a team, ability to use radio to communicate with team queue manager, adults preferred for pit boss; older teens can be part of the pit crew.

Training: Boss provides guidance to pit crew during the competition

Pit Crew/Crowd Control/Queuing (2)

Facilitate smooth team traffic flow in pit area; assure teams are queing up on time. Ensure that teams are reminded of their scheduled tournament times (i.e. matches, practice table time). Support teams by escorting them to / from judging sessions and competition rounds, if necessary.

Practice Table Managers oversee the practice tables, ensuring that teams are on and off the practice tables at scheduled times, that tables are left in the condition in which they were found (i.e. all mission models intact and in appropriate location), and that the tables are broken down once scheduled practice times are complete.

Experience & Skills Needed: Attention to detail is critical, ability to be assertive, ability to sit for long periods of time and punctuality a must.